Slices of warmed toasted garlic bread to dip into the stew..............

It has been quite a while since I have cook a beef stew. Last weekend when shopping for groceries , I bought a packet of australian beef which is quite expensive compared to the local ones. I have never used this type of beef for my stew so I thought it might taste better since it is more expensive. But it did not turn out that way...the meat taste quite bland and dry. It must be because it had been frozen for quite sometime. So a lesson learned....expensive doesn't means better.

Actually a stew is easy to cook. You just cut up all the ingredients and dump it all into a pot to simmer for a few hours. For the beef stew I used:-

400gm of beef-cubed (cubed)

1 medium sized carrot (cubed)

2 nos. tomatoes ( cubed)

1 nos. big onion ( chopped)

4 -5 nos of potatoes(peeled and cubed)

some flour for tossing the beef.

A knob of butter

1 tbsp of oil

1 cup of water

Seasoning:

dried mix herbs

1 bayleaf

1 cube beef stock

coarsely ground black pepper

Heat up a pot and put in oil and butter. Saute the onions and bayleaf in oil til fragrant. Then add in the tomatoes,carrots and potatoes to fry for a minute. Sprinkle some mix herbs and black pepper into the mixture. Put in the beef that is tossed with some flour.(do not use a lot of flour or else your stew will be very thick and it will stick to the bottom of the pot to cause it to burnt easily). Mix it well with the vegetables. Then pour in the water and add in the beef cube. Covered the pot and simmer on a low heat for 2 to 3 hours depending on the cut of meat used.

The stew should be stirred constantly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of pot.

The stew is ready when the meat is tender and will fall apart when mashed with a fork.

Stew is best eaten with warm bread. I bought a baguette and sliced it sideway. Mashed some butter with chopped garlic and spread it on one side and then toast it in an oven toaster. ...Dip it in a bowl of hot beef stew and enjoy the lovely meal.......my kids love this stew since they were young. It could also be eaten with rice..... It will taste better when kept overnight in the fridge.